Tag: Fresno

Does Steve Kornacki Know Fresno? A Lame Investigation

The Fresnan
f598359b-47b8-418d-8dc8-e3ee7ad376e7 Does Steve Kornacki Know Fresno? A Lame Investigation

I think Election Map God, Steve Kornacki, knows the Fresno area more than a regular person.

When he was running through California counties counting up recall numbers Tuesday night, whenever a San Joaquin Valley county would come up he would make a point to mention “San Joaquin Valley.”

And when Fresno County came up, he stopped to talk about the numbers – nothing extra there but just saying.

Here is the kicker though: when Madera came up he made sure to mention it was “20 minutes from Fresno” which is correct and would be an odd fact to know if you didn’t spend time here.

Even with Steve’s unique knowledge of American county geography, the Madera to Fresno thing is unique.

Let’s see where Steve is from:

072ff019-a56e-468e-9eb2-dc8be358d604 Does Steve Kornacki Know Fresno? A Lame Investigation

Nothing there.

Welp ??, that’s all the investigating I have the energy for. Good job as always, Steve.

Anyway, back to Fresno…I love that my eye kept going to Fresno on the map. Partially because of bias I am sure, but also because your eye wants to look at the center.

To recap:

  • Good on Fresno for being centered.
  • I don’t mind Steve knowing things about Fresno, however he knows them.

Update!!

Mystery solved by the man himself!!! ❤️

Best 10 minute post I have ever written.

The Best Salsa For A Quesadilla from Quesadilla Gorilla Is…

The Fresnan
img_1546 The Best Salsa For A Quesadilla from Quesadilla Gorilla Is...
I need four YES FOUR salsas when I get some Quesadilla Gorilla!

There can be only one salsa that is the BEST salsa at Quesadilla Gorilla and that is the one on the right: Cilantro Cream.

  • Roasted Sour Cream? No.
  • Avocado Salsa? Fine but no.
  • Roasted Red Salsa? You would think but NO!
  • Spicy Salsa Verde? Pretty good but still NO!
  • Habanero Salsa? Totally NO!
  • Liquid Gold? Awesome name but actually terrible.

You can go at me in the comments all you want if you disagree, but you will be wrong.

Why Can’t Fresno Be The Test Market For THIS, Taco Bell?

The Fresnan
50914622-312E-4B92-9F04-46E2396582C0 Why Can’t Fresno Be The Test Market For THIS, Taco Bell?

Fresno is king of Drive-Thrus. We are also the test market for many things fast food – we approved Doritos Locos Tacos (you’re welcome? world).

So why the HELL aren’t we getting this new Taco Bell drive-thru concept first!?

The innovative restaurant reimagines the traditional drive-thru experience with four lanes, three of which are dedicated to mobile or delivery order pickups, providing fast, skip-the-line service for customers who order via the Taco Bell app and third-party delivery services. These three lanes will supplement one traditional lane, easing the flow of traffic and ensuring a speedy experience.

-Somebody at Taco Bell

I guess some town in Minnesota is getting this first.

Really, all our drive-thrus should be this concept or we should trash them and not have any.

Fresno Letting The Past Die Again

The Fresnan
https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe984b2f0-d6f2-4eac-8724-86af6636854b_1170x924 Fresno Letting The Past Die Again

Gut wrenching stuff for Fresno architecture this past week.

We first learned that a different group of assholes (different from the Tower Theatre assholes) have taken over the Liberty Theater (Fresno’s oldest) and gutted it:

Before:

https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6e623a53-9996-4911-97f9-ff0ec578a0f8_1170x897 Fresno Letting The Past Die Again

Then the gutting:

https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F82a11d28-dba5-4993-a309-4555c3489fd0_1170x892 Fresno Letting The Past Die Again

Like [takes deep breath] THEY REMOVED A WHOLE DAMN BALCONY WITHOUT PERMISSION!

The Fresno Bee’s Marek Warszawski does some great follow up work to find out how they were able to get away with this.

Basically, the city approved them to do SOME demolition inside but not all of what they did and then city never really came out to make sure they were taking care in what they were ripping out, so the contractor had carte blanche to keep ripping.

Fine them. stop construction. do what you can, City of Fresno, but it’s too late now. It’s gone. Can’t get it back. 

Is Kylo Ren overseeing renovations?

https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff90a96ee-20dc-4849-a494-a39c1eaa3833_602x339 Fresno Letting The Past Die Again

NEVER, KYLO! 

I’ll never join the Dark Side nor will I abide the Liberty being gutted to become a church. It’s NOT what it was meant to be.

It makes me sick. I mean, William Saroyan used to hang out in that balcony – Bill would definitely have been a Jedi, btw.

When I was part of Creative Fresno we helped put on some shows in the Liberty. It gave me the chance to explore all around that theater and I was amazed at how everything appeared to be original.

In fact, the projector room was still there with the old projector equipment, looking like someone just quit one day, in like 1952, and nothing had been touched since.

Now it’s just fucking gone.

The Dumb Drum dudes put together a great video around that time, exploring the theater with (ironically) a focus on the now fucking gone, balcony:

I used to think that a business or church taking over an old unused building, even for some different purpose than the building was intended, was better than it sitting there and rotting away. Not anymore.

Better to sit and rot in faint hope that it one day will be restored, than to be gutted.

As an example, Hotel Fresno sat FOREVER, rotting away. There was a lot of talk that it would be better to just tear it down. But now, people will be staying/living there again WITH as much of the original architecture retained or restored.

So, we can do things properly here, sadly it takes people that respect Fresno. It seems there are a lot of churches around that don’t.

*Pics stolen from Vintage Fresno’s Instagram feedand Miguel Arias.

I’d Totally Sign My Name On A House

The Fresnan
77AFE119-3316-42A6-A454-0526156B1944 I’d Totally Sign My Name On A House

Hopefully Andrew is cool with me posting his Tower District kitchen renovation.

I thought it was post worthy because of what he found while tearing up his kitchen:

278B2A1B-BFDA-4626-AF9A-D32DEB1B8516 I’d Totally Sign My Name On A House
F523F844-8DCF-4D7C-9AEE-61DD0E844EB1 I’d Totally Sign My Name On A House
12DA220B-0C56-429C-9CDC-481F99A6CCCA I’d Totally Sign My Name On A House

Old Fresno houses are the best. Some more info:

I love the idea of carpenters and home builders signing boards and stamping things. Especially when it’s something that no one may ever see.

Can You See Satellites In Fresno? Yes.

The Fresnan
https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F56ce0cd3-80a8-487d-b4e5-ea17aa269a50_850x627 Can You See Satellites In Fresno? Yes.

The ISS with solar array in full bloom (pic by NASA just in case you thought I took this)

Sorry if this is yet another thing that makes me a nerd but I like spotting satellites in Fresno’s night sky. Even with our light pollution, its not that hard to do.

If ya think you have never seen one, you probably have and just passed it off as a plane.

The trick to spot them for me is: there are no blinking lights on a satellite. 

It is one solid light that looks like a star, but moving smoothly and quietly across the night sky.

  • Blinking = Plane.
  • Solid = Satellite.

If you like watching a small dot move across a screen, here is a video I took of the International Space Station going over the Eastern Fresno sky:

And this equally dorky one across the NW Fresno sky:

I mean, come on now, THAT is some THRILLING ? video people! [sarcasm]

As nerds in Fresno take video of them that you can hardly see, the Space Station crew occasionally takes shots of the Earth below:

https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FE3jUvUVXoAUmWQx Can You See Satellites In Fresno? Yes.
https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FE3jUv74X0Ag2jZY Can You See Satellites In Fresno? Yes.
https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FE3jUxSTX0AA2Y8_ Can You See Satellites In Fresno? Yes.
https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FE3jUxwiX0AAZe-o Can You See Satellites In Fresno? Yes.

There are websites and apps to help spot things. I sometimes use an app simply called “Satellite Tracker” to find me some info on what I might be seeing – there is a lot of abandoned space junk up there still circling.

You can find a calendar of the ISS’s activities here.

Once you get the hang of it, it becomes pretty easy to spot the random ? satellite – there are many more than there used to be. It usually only takes a minute to find one and I live in the middle of the city.

Also, over the next few weeks the Perseid Metor Shower is going on, peaking August 11-13th. You definitely can catch a few from your patio but those are best viewed outside of the city.